‘Cinderella’: Camila Cabello & Billy Porter On The Magic Of Modern Fairytales

Camila Cabello wasn’t looking to become an actress when a pair of glass slippers came calling.

The Grammy Award-nominated singer stars in Amazon Prime Video’s Cinderella alongside Billy Porter, who portrays her fairy godmother—or GodMuva, as Porter refers to the character—in a modern fairytale for the ages.

The film from writer and director Kay Cannon sends the message that dreamers can be anyone they want. Just look at Cabello, a Cuban American girl playing one of the most famous princesses ever written; and Porter, a queer Black male starring as her fairy godmother, changing lives while wearing the fiercest ensemble in storybook history.

“It’s really been an honor to play Cinderella, everything this film stands for, I stand for,” Cabello told Deadline. “It stands for representation and diversity, dreams and independence, and compassion. All the things we need to be talking about. This Cinderella has ambition and big dreams for herself, it’s not all about the prince. I also believe there are no good or evil people, we’re all just complicated and struggling through our own things. Those layers live within this story and its characters.”

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Porter calls the film an “instantly iconic and classic interpretation” of Cinderella and can’t help but boast about his character.

“The fabulous GodMuva is magical and magic has no gender,” he shared. “That was the goal from the very beginning and part of Kay’s vision. I found out a few days ago I was the only choice when she wrote this reinterpretation, which is really special. Every choice that was made in this version to be inclusive was intentional.”

Cabello says the role found her, though she had been taking acting lessons but wasn’t actively looking for the gig. And this opportunity was perfect; her Cinderella not only sings but she dances, which the pop star says really helped her ease into this new facet of her career.

“Ease in is the perfect way to describe it,” she said. “With the film centering music in such a big way it made things easier to ease into. I love movies and I love acting but I love music and singing so much. Being able to do something that allowed me to do all of those things was one of the reasons I was so excited to do this film.”

Fans of her music will be happy to hear Cabello has no plans to leave her recording career for the bright lights of Hollywood full time. She is, however, looking for another opportunity to act.

In the meantime, she was taking notes while working with co-stars Porter, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver and Idina Menzel.

“The biggest thing I learned is about being more flexible. For example, Pierce Brosnan would improvise often and he never did a take the same way twice. He was always playing around,” she revealed. “Working with Billy was really magical and I feel like I’ve made a friend for life. He’s so kind and so real and so affectionate. I loved our time together.”

For fans of Pose, the FX hit Porter starred in for three seasons that concluded in June, there’s a little extra layer of magic in Cinderella that not even the Emmy Award winner noticed.

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” Porter gushed when asked if he had thought of the fairy GodMuva being the continuation of the story of Pray Tell, his Pose character in heaven. “I hadn’t thought about it like that but, yes! I like that trajectory and thinking about Pray Tell in those heavenly terms.”

Cinderella is currently available to stream via Amazon.